In a phone interview before the ceremony, Whetstone said Clinton never met her son. But since her family had long supported him politically and would even “run into him at the grocery store,” her son’s death may have “hit close to home” for the former president, she said.

The Marine’s parents have said they believe he was killed by “friendly fire” when a gunner with a tank platoon misidentified him as an enemy combatant during a firefight in Helmand province. Schmidt’s death and the impact it had on his fellow Marines was reported by the Wall Street Journal, which had a reporter embedded with his battalion.

Under changes to military law in the 1990s, a U.S. service member killed or wounded in action by friendly fire while directly engaged in armed conflict is eligible to receive the Purple Heart.

Whetstone said the family found a journal her son kept in Afghanistan among his belongings. In one entry, Schmidt wrote that among his family members, he was most concerned about his mother’s reaction if he were killed in action, she said.

“That makes me all the more determined to be positive-minded about this, and not be overcome with sadness,” Whetstone said.